Fangs of Love
by WING Higley
Summary: It's Halloween: Akane finds happiness in the arms of another as Ranma grieves for his lost love....


All characters TM & Copyright 1996 by Rumiko Takahashi and Bandai:  
  
W*ING Higley Presents:  
  
Fangs of Love  
  
October, 31st, Halloween:  
  
"Are you really sure you want to switch costumes?" Nabiki Tendo asked her younger sister.  
  
Akane studied herself in the mirror as she modeled the cat-girl costume she had borrowed from her Nabiki. It was one of the more convincing Meryl costumes she had ever seen, certainly better than the cheap, store bought ones that the Escaflowne fanatics used in their cosplay competitions. Nabiki had paid Yuka and the sewing club to make it, with the highlight being a rubber mask with genuine cat hair to disguise the face. "Oh, I'm sure," Akane said, "as long as you don't mind switching."  
  
"Not a problem with me," Nabiki said as she slipped on the Ghostface costume that her sister had originally intended to wear. "Why on earth did you want to swap costumes anyway?"  
  
Akane grimaced as she turned around. "Because, I want to avoid Ranma tonight."  
  
Nabiki frowned as well. Ranma had not been in his best of moods recently. Actually, he had been downright depressed ever since they had found Shampoo's body....  
  
"I don't think that's very nice, sis. Avoiding your own fiancee like that." Nabiki said.   
  
"I know," her sister replied, "but this is my homecoming, and if I have to spend it with Ranma he'll just ruin it. All he's done for the past week is sit on that roof and sulk. Hell, he wouldn't even be going tonight if Auntie wasn't forcing him." Akane squinted her face in an attempt to look more like Nodoka. "It isn't manly to not take your fiancee to the homecoming ball, especially if it's a masquerade ball," she said in a bad imitation of her future mother-in-law.  
  
Nabiki suppressed a grin. "Still, haven't you tried to talk to him?"  
  
"I have, sis. Twice I've tried to tell him he needs to move on, and each time he's just gotten mad and yelled at me."  
  
Nabiki nodded. "So why do you want to switch costumes? He'll find me eventually and make me take the mask off, and then he'll know I'm not you."  
  
Akane knew what was coming. "I'm sure that for the right price, you won't tell him who I'm dressed as, will you?"  
  
Now Nabiki smiled.  
  
*****  
  
Nodoka Saotome stood on the roof of the Tendo Dojo and watched with concern as her only son sat on the edge of the Dojo and wept uncontrollably. He had been this way for over a week now, ever since Mousse had shown up to announce that Shampoo was dead. He did not explain how she had died or why, merely that she was indeed dead.   
  
Ranma's reaction had been totally unexpected. Instead of expressing his condolences or remarking that he was glad he was free from the Amazon laws that said he had to marry her, Ranma had collapsed to his knees and begun to sob.   
  
He had fled to the Dojo, and save for meals and school, had spent all his time on the roof being miserable.  
  
Nodoka approached her son cautiously. "Ranma?" she said hesitantly.  
  
"Go away," the pig-tailed martial artist whispered. "Just leave me alone."  
  
"Ranma, it's Halloween, the night of your school's big costume ball. You promised you'd take Akane, remember?"  
  
Ranma slowly raised his head and turned around. His eyes were red from crying, though now his face held nothing but a look of disbelief. "You still want me to take Akane to the dance?" he asked incredulously.  
  
"She is your fiancee, Ranma. You have to take her. Here, I brought your costume," she said, indicating the Phantom of the Opera costume she held in her hands.  
  
"I don't wanna go."  
  
"You must," Nodoka said sharply. "Look, I am sorry that Shampoo is dead, but you cannot let that affect-"  
  
"Affect?!!" Ranma shouted. "Affect? Mom, I loved her."  
  
Nodoka winced at this proclamation.  
  
"I don't know how it happened, or when," Ranma explained, "but a few weeks ago, I realized I was in love with her. And then she died before I could tell her." He began crying again.  
  
Nodoka sighed. Placing the costume on the roof, she knelt behind her son and enveloped him in a hug. "Ranma, I'm sorry this happened. But you have to understand it wouldn't have worked. Honor demands that you marry Akane, not some Amazon bimbo-"  
  
"She's not a bimbo!" Ranma screamed. "And screw honor." He was promptly slapped in the face for this second outburst.  
  
Now Nodoka was angry. "Don't you ever say that. Honor is all this family has left. Now put this costume on and get going, your fiancee has already left without you!"  
  
Ranma stared at his mother as if he didn't know her anymore. As if he had ever known her to begin with.  
*****  
  
Two hours later, Furinkan High:  
  
"Excuse me, miss? Can you tell me where Furinkan High is?"  
  
Akane Tendo, in her Meryl costume, turned in shock to see Ryoga Hibiki standing in front of her. "I'm sorry," she said.  
  
Ryoga frowned. "I said, could you tell me where Furinkan High is?"  
  
Akane giggled, he doesn't realize it's me underneath this mask, she thought to herself. Might as well have some fun, she decided. Ranma had shown up a half-hour earlier, sans costume, and hadn't even tried looking for her. He had gone straight to the bar and tried to ignore the rest of the revelers at the ball, lost in his own world of grief and pity.  
  
  
"Actually sir, you're at Furinkan. This is the annual Halloween Homecoming Ball." Akane said as she waved around to the room in general.  
  
Ryoga blushed in embarrassment. "Ah, I see. Heh. Um, you wouldn't happen to have seen a short girl with black hair around, have you?"  
  
He must mean Akari, Akane thought. What would she be doing here? "I'm sorry sir, I haven't seen anyone like that."   
  
Ryoga smiled sheepishly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'll just be running along then...."  
  
"Wait," Akane said. "She might show up later, would you like to dance in the meantime?"  
  
Ryoga's breath caught. Dance? With a member of the opposite sex (and quite a beautiful member, judging from the way she filled out that cat costume, even if he couldn't see her face behind the rubber mask)? "Ah, I really don't think it would be a good idea..."  
  
"Don't worry," Akane teased, "I won't tell your girlfriend."  
  
Ryoga mulled it over for a minute before nodding his head in assent. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt."  
  
  
He moved stiffly at first, seemingly embarrassed to be on the dance floor. But as the first song turned into the second, and then the third, Ryoga began to relax and allow himself to enjoy the moment.  
  
For her part, Akane was lost in thought. Ryoga's so sweet and handsome, she thought. Why can't Ranma be more like him? Ryoga's always so nice to me, and he even acts like he enjoys my cooking, no matter how toxic I make it.  
  
"I think I've seen you around campus before," Akane said, breaking the peaceful silence that had enveloped them for four straight songs. "You're going out with that Akari girl from up in the hills, right?"  
  
Ryoga grimaced. "I was going out with her, but we split up last week."  
  
Akane was stunned. "Oh, I'm so sorry. What happened?"  
  
The Lost Boy shook his head and looked off to his side. "There was...another girl...I...that I...that I've been in love with for a long time now. I couldn't go on lying to Akari anymore so I broke things off with her."  
  
Now Akane was confused. Another girl? Why hadn't Ryoga ever mentioned her before? And she had black hair? As ludicrous as it sounded, had Ryoga fallen in love with Kodachi?  
  
"What's her name, this girl you're in love with?"  
  
Ryoga blushed deep scarlet. "Her name's Akane Tendo. I've been in love with her since the first time I met her over a year ago. I just wish I could tell her how I felt."  
  
The girl in the cat suit stopped and, much to Ryoga's shock, removed her mask to reveal the face of Akane Tendo. "You just did," Akane said quietly.  
  
The Lost Boy stood there, torn between embarrassment and shock. He had just told Akane he loved her. She knew, she now knew how he felt. She was going to laugh at him, or worse slap him. She was going to tell him that she didn't feel that way and he was just a friend. Or worse she was going to say that she never wanted to see him again and to burn in hell....  
  
Instead, Akane Tendo slowly reached up and placed her right hand at the nape of his neck. Slowly, hesitantly, she drew him in for a kiss. It was a sweet kiss, and Ryoga nearly lost himself in it.  
  
As they separated, Ryoga stared at Akane in quiet wonderment. She smiled and placed her hand on his cheek. "I'm glad, Ryoga. I'm really glad you told me." She placed her head on his chest and the two danced on....  
  
*****  
  
From the bar, Ranma Saotome stared in wide-eyed in shock at the happy couple. The love of his life was dead, his mother had threatened to disown him, and now his fiancee had just kissed Pig Boy and the two were dancing together.  
  
"This week cannot get any more f*cked up," he said outloud.  
  
"Do not be so sure, airen." The voice came from behind him, and had a distinctly Chinese accent.  
  
Slowly, Ranma Saotome turned around and looked on in disbelief as the previously thought dead Shampoo stood before him. "Sh-Shampoo?"  
  
It was her. Her skin was deathly pale, and she wore a scarf around her neck, but it was Shampoo. "The one and only," Shampoo said.  
  
Ranma swallowed. "H-how?"  
  
The Amazon smiled and pointed towards the crowd. "I think we should go someplace more private, don't you think?" Taking his hand, Shampoo teleported them to the roof.  
  
"What?" Ranma was more confused than ever now.  
  
"You seem to be asking quite a few questions," Shampoo remarked. "Perhaps this will explain some things...." She slowly removed the scarf around her neck to reveal two bite marks across her neck, where the jugular was.  
  
"A week ago, I was attacked at the Cat Cafe by a vampire. He was looking for some Amazon artifact that my Great Grandmother had. I lost the fight, but I gained so much more." She smirked as Ranma began to coil away in fear. "Immortality, teleportation," she transformed into Nodoka Saotome, "metamorphosis. The bite even allows me to speak flawless Japanese."  
  
"Th-that was you on the roof tonight?" Ranma asked hoarsely.  
  
Shampoo nodded. "I've seen you on the roof these last few nights. I figured you'd be more willing to open up to your mother than to a girl you thought dead."  
  
"Mother-"  
  
"She's fine, airen. I did nothing to harm her or anyone else in the Tendo home."   
  
"But, you're a vampire...." Ranma almost jumped out of his skin as Shampoo placed a hand on his cheek.  
  
"It's not like the movies, airen. I'm not evil, or at least anymore evil than I was before I died." She began to run her finger down his well-muscled chest. "I'm still the same person I always was..."  
  
"Except you drink blood, now," Ranma finished.  
  
She smirked. "True, but I do get to choose who's blood I drink." She looked at him seductively. "And I'd like to drink yours, airen. That is, if you don't mind."  
  
"Mine? You mean, like, turn me into a vampire too?"  
  
She drew closer to him. "What else did you think? You did say you loved me."  
  
"Yeah, but...." They turned and looked down through the skylight. Ryoga and Akane were still together, dancing happily in each other's embrace.  
  
"It's not like you have much left to live for. When your parents find out you were in love with me, they'll go ballistic. Never mind the grief Akane's going to suffer if she marries Ryoga while you're still alive."  
  
Ranma bit his lip and stared down at Akane. Whatever feeling he still held for the youngest Tendo daughter died as he watched her reach up and kiss Ryoga again. Then he turned to look at Shampoo, his true love. "Will it hurt?"  
  
The Amazon vampire smiled. :Only a little at first. Actually, the transformation's almost instantaneous. I merely 'played dead' to keep my Great Grandmother and Mousse from figuring things out." She pulled down his collar to better expose his neck and revealed her fangs. "Ready?"  
  
Ranma nodded nervously and closed his eyes. He felt a sharp stabbing pain on the left side of his neck, followed almost instantaneously by an incredible wave of pleasure. "Oh," he moaned as his legs gave out from under him. To his surprise, Shampoo held him up effortlessly.  
  
After she had drunk enough, Shampoo used her fingernail to slice open a cut on her shoulder. "Now," she said, "you must drink from me to complete the transformation."   
  
Ranma nodded and bent down, drinking deeply to satisfy this strange new thirst that had formed inside of him. He felt his incisors change and morph into fangs while his own strength seemed to quadruple. Finally, they separated.  
  
"What happens now?" Ranma asked.  
  
Shampoo smiled at her now un-dead fiancee. "Now," she said, "we feed. But not here, not among our friends."  
  
Ranma nodded as he and his mate transformed into bats and flew off for parts unknown, while below, Akane and Ryoga danced, oblivious to the true horrors of the dark.  
  
*****  
  
Author's Notes: Now this is a strange one from me, a dark romance and a WAFFY romance all mixed into one. Kinda rushed I admit, but I wanted to get this out before the Halloween season passed. I'd been toying with the idea of a Shampoo as a vampire seduces Ranma plot line for a while, and I thought I might as well go for broke and do a Ryoga/Akane romance as well (of which there are far too few).  
  
Happy Halloween everyone!  
  



End file.
